Pain for Kenya’s taxpayer as external debt rises to $24.4 billion
Kenya’s National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung'u speaking during a meeting with World Bank officials in Nairobi on December 6, 2022. Kenya’s dollar-denominated debt hit 69.3 percent of the country’s external debt in October. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG
Kenya’s dollar-denominated debt hit 69.3 percent of the country’s external debt in October, exposing the taxpayers to higher financing costs due to the sharp depreciation of the shilling against the US currency.
This translates to Ksh3.02 trillion ($24.4 billion) of Kenya’s growing external debt that rose to Ksh4.35 trillion ($35.3 billion) in October, with that proportion growing by 2.3 percentage points from 2021 and an increase of 3.4 percentage points compared to 2020.
